[Treatment of status epilepticus with rectally administered diazepam]

Rectal administration of diazepam is a good alternative to intravenous acute treatment in severe epileptic crises, but there is scarce information about its usefulness in status epilepticus. Treatment with rectal diazepam, 0.6 to 0.8 mg x kg of body weight as a single drug, in 10 children with 13 episodes of status epilepticus, defined as epileptic crises lasting 30 or more minutes (ten of these were generalized tonic and clonic, two were unilateral tonic and clonic, and one was of the partial complex type) is described. Nine status epilepticus episodes subsided at an average 4.4 minutes after the drug was given; in 3 cases there were no favourable effects, and one case recurred after initial response. There were no significant complications, with the exception of slight respiratory depression in a patient with encephalitis. In spite of the small size of the sample, these results suggest that rectal diazepam is an effective alternative to intravenous drug administration in the management of status epilepticus whenever venous access is difficult.